The signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation between the Vietnam Maritime and Waterways Administration and the Office of the Premier and Foreign Affairs of the Flanders Region, Kingdom of Belgium was held on March 31st, in Hanoi. Attending the signing ceremony were Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Xuan Sang, Minister in charge of Brussels and Communications of the Flanders Region, Ms. Cieltje Van Achter.
Minister Cieltje Van Achter highly appreciated the cooperation between Vietnam and the Kingdom of Belgium over time, and said that in the context of globalization, the seaport system plays an important role in the economies of both countries.
Currently, Belgian seaports are focusing on promoting sustainable transport activities through providing multimodal transport activities, serving the transport of goods, using green energy vehicles, aiming at sustainable, safe and efficient logistics.
The Vietnam Maritime and Waterways Administration and the Office of the Premier and Foreign Affairs of the Flanders Region, Kingdom of Belgium signed the MoU.
Within the framework of cooperation between the Belgian Government and the Ministry of Transport (now the Ministry of Construction) in recent years, corporations have made efforts to commit and work alongside Vietnamese partners to promote infrastructure and enhance logistics activities in various fields.
Deputy Minister Nguyen Xuan Sang said that the current capacity of Vietnam’s seaports is about 800 million tons/year and by 2030, it is expected to reach about 1.4 billion tons/year.
To meet the growth demand, Vietnam is planning to develop many new ports. In particular, the Northern region focuses on Hai Phong seaport, completing 18 berths in Lach Huyen and Nam Do Son, meeting the size of ships of about 200,000 tons. The Central region has planned a seaport in Da Nang to be able to receive ships up to 150,000 DWT. The Southern region focuses on the Can Gio international transit port in Ho Chi Minh City.
Overview of signing.
The leaders of the Ministry of Construction recommended that the Government of Flanders continue to support the Vietnam Maritime and Waterways Administration in sharing information, expertise and transferring technology for construction and maintenance of maritime and waterway infrastructure; operating and exploiting seaports and waterway ports, enhancing connections between seaports and waterway ports; enhancing connections between Flanders seaports and deep-water ports of Vietnam, recommending policies to promote Vietnam's deep-water ports to become transit hubs for neighboring countries.
At the signing ceremony, Deputy Minister Nguyen Xuan Sang and Minister Cieltje Van Achter emphasized the importance of signing the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation between the Vietnam Maritime and Waterways Administration and the Office of the Premier and Foreign Affairs of the Flanders Region in the context of Vietnam and the Kingdom of Belgium celebrating the 50th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations (1973-2023), contributing to promoting bilateral cooperation activities in the field of maritime and waterways, in line with the interests of Vietnam and the strengths of Flanders, the Kingdom of Belgium, contributing to promoting socio-economic development of both sides.